Electoral participation and intergenerational transmission among Turkish migrants in Western Europe

Abstract

This study investigates whether immigration affects the extent to which children of migrants are likelier to vote if their parents vote (and vice versa). It combines intergenerational transmission theories with migrant political participation theories. Existing studies of migration and intergenerational transmission mainly focus on (Latino) immigrants in the United States and have not assessed migration’s true impact through comparison with non-migrants from the origin society. This study analyses unique data on Turkey-Europe migration, which include migrant and non-migrant child-parent dyads, applying logistic regression analysis. The results show a clear ‘intrahousehold similarity in electoral participation’ among migrant dyads in European national elections, which is weaker (but present) among the non-migrant dyads in Turkey. Though migration thus seems to strengthen transmission, the effect is only present if the child grew up in Europe, suggesting that children also stimulate their parents’ political engagement. Additionally, results show that the electoral participation of parents in the Turkish elections is not associated with the electoral participation of the adult children in the European national elections. Taken together, the analyses indicate that the underlying mechanism of transmission is not just one of (two-way) political socialization; ‘household mobilization’ also plays an important role.